The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-10-08

Entered dt the Post o0tce dt Chicago, ILL,
 VOL. II. NO. 20.
 JENNINGS.
 The dynamite gun has been proven to be exceedingly injurious to wooden vessels; and, when turned against an American man. of war, makes kindling wood at an encouraging rate.
 General Viscount Wolseley con- parcs Victoria to Queen Anne. Come to think of it, they are very much alike. Both widows, and, what is more striking to the thoughtful mind, both women.
 In Police Court.-Judge Cto pris- oner)-"You look at though you had fallen into the river"
 Prisoner-"Wors than that, your honor. I have just returned from the G. A. R. encampment at St. Louis"
 Editorial in a Mississippi Newspa- per. "Thursday night, while we were writing an editorial on the finan- cial condition of the county, some tiend in human shape threw brick through our window and struck us on our head. We fell to our floor and lost our senses. How long we remained in our condition of uncon- sciousness, we know not. The first thing we remember was being taken up by Major Gribner, our good friend. We wefe taken to a drug store, where our wound was dressed Our wife and children soon came, and we were taken to our home. We are naturally indignant over this cow ardly attack upon Us, and we offer a years subscription to our paper to the man who discovers who it was that hit us."
 Henry James, or, as he would in the west be called, Hank Jim. is rest ing quietly in London. MT. James is no doubt a polished gentleman, with a faint, tremulous appreciation of humor, and yawning, ague-like stretch of description; sort of lin- gering slipper of character cock tail, and a parlor photographer of delicate faces, but we cannot set him down as the American novelist. We do not attempt to withhold from MT. James the distinction of creditable author ship, but we do object when the Eng fish press says that he is representa- tive of American literature. Mr. James novels are not distinctively American. With but few changes they could be made to apply to any country. This charge cannot be brought against representative men of American letters. Col. Silas Laphom, MT. Howells' strongest character, is strictly an American product, nar- row, it is true, still purely American. Frank R. Stockton, when he foregoes his prankish love of puzzling situa- tions and settles down to honest work, is a fair type of Americas vigor in fiction. He seems, though, in his best mood, to be somewhat held in check through fear of violat- ing some of the rules of realism, and doubtless, in revising his copy, strikes out much of tat bright spontaneity which first drew to him so many admiring readers. E. W. Howe, the Kansas novelist, whose "Story of Country Town" was, sev- eral years ago, received with such favor, appears to have unyoked his steers and driven them from the field of fiction. His work was slightly affected by a gloomy pretense, and was somewhat marred by carelessness of construction, but it was strongly American. John R. Musick, of Kirks- vile, Mo-, first attracted attention by a novel entitled "The Banker of Bed ford" Mir. Musick has just pub- lished another novel, Brother Against Brother" It is a powerful story, constructed with admirable straight forwardness, and is held together by a strong underpinning of that